Opinion: Tancredo beaten to the punch?

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Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) has released a new ad, just as bloody as his last, and the similarities don’t stop there. Both spots tie immigration policy to scary and indefensible scourges of American life — first terrorists, now gangs. And both ads conclude with vote-for-Tancredo-or-else-risk-brutal-violence ultimatums. The new spot says only Tancredo ‘dares say what must be done’ (deport ‘em all, that is).

The ad came out the same day Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that, in fact, it’s actually doing what must be done. ICE fugitive operations teams arrested over 30,000 people in fiscal year 2007 — twice as many ‘criminal aliens and immigration fugitives’ as it nabbed the year before. The Fugitive Operations Program, launched four years ago, targets illegal immigrants whom everyone from Tancredo to The Times agrees should get the boot, like child sex exploiters, convicted violent criminals, and suspected gang members.

Suspected is the key word there, unfortunately — reports have shown that many of those arrested turn out to have no gang involvement. (And The Times said in a 2005 story that deportation has actually helped one of the most dangerous gangs to flourish.)

ICE is, fortunately, softening its policy on raids. After a report showed the negative impact on children of detaining adult illegal immigrants — especially breast-fed babies — ICE drafted new guidelines with Sen. Edward Kennedy’s (D-Mass.) help. It’s good to see Kennedy, a co-sponsor of the mother of all comprehensive immigration reform bills, getting back in the game, since most every non-legislative effort to fix immigration policy has focused on security concerns, at the expense of humanitarian ones.